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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-21-2024 Health & Human Services Minutes Health and Human Services Board Minutes August 21, 2024 5:00 PM St. Croix County Health Care Campus, Great Room # 116/118 1445 North 4th Street New Richmond, WI 54017 Call to Order Health and Human Services (HHS) Board Chair Greg Tellijohn called the August 21, 2024 meeting of the HHS Board to order at approximately 5:08 PM. This meeting is being held in the Great Room at the Health Care Campus in New Richmond, so recording equipment is not available. Roll Call PRESENT: Shawn Anderson, Mike Barcalow, Cathy Leaf, Julie Smith, Dave Ostness, Lisa Lind, Greg Tellijohn ABSENT: Kathleen Findlay, Deb Lindemann Others in Attendance: HHS Director Bob Rohret, HHS Deputy Director Shar Lopez, County Administrator Ken Witt, Public Information Officer Adam Kastonek, Health Care Campus (HCC) Administrator Sandy Hackenmueller, HCC Director of Nursing Krysta Nygaard, several other HCC staff and one member of the community Approval of Minutes Health and Human Services Board Chair Greg Tellijohn asked the Board after reviewing the minutes from the July 17, 2024, HHS Board meeting if any editing was needed. With nothing noted, the minutes were accepted as submitted. 1. Minutes of Previous Meeting - July 17, 2024 Public Comment Health and Human Services Board Chair Greg Tellijohn opened the meeting for Public Comment for items on or off the agenda. No public comment. Business 1. Financial Report for July 2024 Fiscal Manager Fay Strenke reviewed the HHS monthly financials with the Board. Strenke shared that the 2023 numbers are now final, and shouldn't see any additional changes. In Public Health, the Med Reserve Corp grant funds will cover most of their negative budget numbers. Behavioral Health is also showing some negative numbers, but is due to the implementation of the integrated clinic and the extra grant funding that paid for some training. There was also the shifting of the State Opioid Response funds to cover different areas than originally thought. In short, the majority of these negative numbers will have grant funding attached to them. You will see in Children's Service the Purchased Services line is spent down to 10%, so we did budget more for next year. As you've been made aware, this is due to high-cost placements for some high-needs children. The number of kids in out of home placement has gone down, and it seems our preventive services are working, but those children with severe needs are costly. Several are over $30,000 a month. Administrator Witt shared that out of home placements are court ordered and have increased by approximately a million dollars this year. The state doesn't help cover the cost of placement for these children and the county is held responsible. The state will pay once they become adults. Discussion was had on why adults are covered by the state and children are not. The Board suggested this as a future agenda item and a possible resolution drafted. At the Health Care Campus, the revenues increased a little over a million dollars compared to last year due to higher Medicaid rates and increased census. Also, depreciation has been calculated this year and even with that, the HCC is still showing a positive balance. 2. Dementia Crisis Stabilization Unit Grant Overview HHS Deputy Director Shar Lopez provided a review of the Dementia Crisis Stabilization grant and was pleased to announce that St. Croix County was initially awarded $376,431 but after additional conversations with the state, it was increased to $450,000. This grant application became available July 1st and was due at the end of July. It seemed very fitting for us to use within the Kitty Rhoades unit here at the Health Care Campus and allow us to develop a DCSU (Dementia Crisis Stabilization Unit). The guidelines of the grant stated that the facility needed to be licensed, it must be able to accept Medicaid, be a 10 bed facility, and designed to provide dementia care. The Kitty Rhoades unit is all of these things! We were also required to obtain support from community partners, and we received overwhelming support with 15 letters of support submitted. Once the DCSU is up and running, the stay for a resident can only be 28 days. This will mean lots of intake assessments, next step care plans, and discharge planning, all beginning at the point of admission. Patients are then transferred to another facility or to the care of the family. The hope is to create Kitty Rhodes' vision for this facility, including using the Memory and Music program that she so strongly believed in. Funding will also be used to enhance the outdoor patio, improve the call button system, improve safety measures and furnishings, as well as implement calming and soothing care, which will also be tools they can use once discharged. Some of the funds will be used for internal incentives and training for staff that will work within this unit, money for advertising, and to recruit staff. We will also need local physicians to buy in to this and be willing to help coordinate treatment and possibly testify in regard to emergency protective placements. There is currently only 1 other DCSU in the state, and it is near Milwaukee. Counties in our area are interested in using this facility and there was lots of support from other providers. Having this local facility is much better for the client as well as their families. It is also more cost-effective. HHS Director Rohret thanked Deputy Director Shar Lopez, HCC Administrator Sandy Hackenmueller and her staff for all the time spent working on this. Board members expressed their thanks as well. Discussion and questions followed on what a potential client referral, stay, and discharge, might look like. Lopez also reminded that September is Suicide Awareness month. 3. Health and Human Services Board Tour of the Health Care Campus Health Care Campus (HCC) Administrator Sandy Hackenmueller, Director of Nursing Krysta Nygaard and Nurse Supervisor Janna Jacobson proceeded to give the HHS Board members and other staff a tour of the HCC. Once the tour was completed, the Board returned to the meeting room to finish the meeting. Questions and discussion around the activities that residents participate in. Request for Future Agenda Items Health and Human Services Board Chair Tellijohn asked for any requests for future agenda items. *Out of home placement coverage by the state; children vs adults. Possibly a resolution *Nursing Home rates for 2025 Announcements * Supervisor Ostness was walking through HCC and ran into families who say they call the HCC home. Also, in Madison the HCC is highly recognized * Director Rohret informed that another grant was received for a PH vending machine that will be placed in the SCCSC vestibule. It will carry harm-reduction items at no cost to the consumer and will track usage * US news ranked the top 500 healthiest counties in the nation and SCC was ranked 65th nationally * Crisis urgent care and observation facilities that the legislature allocated 10 million to the state for their development. Director Rohret is on an advisory committee to advise DHS on the legislative rules for this level of care. Western Wisconsin has been prioritized as an area where one facility would be located. He will present to the advisory committee next week on how Hennepin County developed their behavioral health care center Date of Next Meeting 1. Date of Next Meeting - September 18, 2024 Adjournment HHS Board Chair Tellijohn called the Aug. 21, 2024 meeting of the Health and Human Services Board adjourned at 6:11 PM.